Getting ready for holidays

About a month ago, I had a perfect plan for the New Year party which involved going to a huge dance party with DJs, but I quickly gave the whole idea up. Traveling to a town 110 km away, spending the evening with a bunch of unknown people, without food or heating, wasn't exactly the way I pictured my New Year Eve.
What's more, these dresses I found over at  the Cherry Blossom Girl are more appropriate for a formal dinner than for a party in an arena.

            

There's no Christmas spirit without decorations. I usually start decorating my house at 5pm and finish by 11pm.

79 ideas

I love giving gifts on various occasions. I'm not one of those people who get disappointed or angry if the recipient doesn't return the favor. Sometimes I give others gifts for no reason. The mere joy of giving someone something is a satisfying reward.

79 ideas

However, I wouldn't mind receiving stationary like this for my massive pile of papers and other trinkets. 

79 ideas

Housekeeper

Our internet subscription expired at midnight so I figured I could go outside today and do something useful. My plans included cleaning the barn, gathering old plastic sacks thrown around in the other barn, gathering corn knobs, fiddling with my veggie plot, reading and so on. However, my plans were cut short when G informed me that we have to go over to our friends' house to keep an eye on the house while they're off. Well, isn't that fun, I thought. No, it really isn't. You get bored easily unless you bring over your favorite book, do something useful, like cleaning the house, or surf the net, because your friends got their internet subscription, God bless them. 

Suddenly, the house, the temple of cleanliness and order, does not seem so sacred any more. G founds layers of dust on the living room shelves. However, I like keeping the bathroom door open. All those fragrances of beauty products lingering in the air... And the dog waging his tail in the dining room.. The owners would ban me from their home to see the beast in the house.


Got tired of listening to Radio One. While searching for online radio stations I found a search engine called Radio Locator with "over 10,000 radio station web pages and over 2500 audio streams from radio stations in the U.S. and around the world." My first destination was a French radio station playing dance music. I don't understand a word,  but I don't mind. As long as the music is playing. The last two hours flew by. I'm thinking of having some people over. Just to kill time waiting for the homeowners to come home.

Walking down the memory lane

As much I got fed up with FB, I often end up blessing it. Imagine not seeing your school friends for 20 years, or your childhood friends, then somehow managing to find them on a social network and getting in touch with them after all those years. It's amazing! It's great to get informed about your friend getting married (even though the two of you weren't so close) and to see the wedding pics. 

What's even more amazing and great is getting recognized by the daughter of a co-worker whose friend request you accepted just because you have mutual interest and finding out that that's the same girl you played with in a street one summer 13-14 years ago. Summer ends, the kids disappear, the neighbor disappears too, there's only the neighbor's dog left wandering the streets. Then one day, the dog is gone too, mother's aunt is gone, the house mother's aunt lived is gone, and what's left is the street me and my sister spent our childhood in. 

People can change, faces, streets, houses can change too, but the memories live on. Slightly altered but still...

Let the summer begin!

I got a new haircut finally. It's not really what I've expected, but it's better than my previous hairdo. No more uneven middle-lenght hair, and it's much easier for my skin to breathe. My sister is back, my work at school is all done, so my summer holiday can finally begin.
I spent the past four days fixing my internet connection, cleaning my room, cleaning the garden, going to the library... and I finally bought a new tire and a inner tube for my bike. I'll be able to ride it again after almost two months. I've been thinking about a tag sale but I'm not fully ready to get rid of the clothes I don't need. Tag sales are a completely new concept in my country. If you want to sell stuff you no longer need, you either bring to the flea market or put an ad in the papers.

When I arrived at G's house today, I was surprised to see that G cleaned the pantry and the kitchen cabinets. No more dead bugs, rancid oil in pans, and that disgusting piece of lard with grease dripping on my head every time I enter the pantry. We finally fixed the blinds and I even managed to convince him to repaint the walls in the house. Yay!
Now I have to empty the pool to get it ready for my sister's visit tomorrow. Emptying the pool with buckets won't be easy but I don't want to let it flood the lawn.The plants in the garden will appreciate the water more.

Vision of the future

I have always been fascinated with the past, with the way people lived, the fashion. Very often I felt like I would have been much happier living in the 1920s, 1940s or even the 60s. 
What fascinates me now is the way the people saw the future, the year 2000, the 21st century. Literature and illustrations from those times give us a clear vision of what the world would look like in 90, 70, or 50 years. Much of their predictions were right however, some predictions were far-fetched.

wellmedicated

wellmedicated

Individuals predicting the future were definitely wrong about the life on other planets, or even space. It's 2011 and we're still searching for a body in the Solar System being capable of hosting conventional organic life. Besides water, gases and microbes, no extraterrestrials were found on any of the planets observed so far. So the mankind will have to wait another decade or two before it can build colonies in space. OK, there are manned spacecrafts orbiting the Earth, but that's far from the vision of human colonies in space.

Solar heating is quite common in homes and buildings today. However, only a small amount of the entire available solar energy is used. "Commercial solar water heaters began appearing in the United States in the 1890s.These systems saw increasing use until the 1920s but were gradually replaced by cheaper and more reliable heating fuels.As with photovoltaics, solar water heating attracted renewed attention as a result of the oil crises in the 1970s but interest subsided in the 1980s due to falling petroleum prices. Development in the solar water heating sector progressed steadily throughout the 1990s and growth rates have averaged 20% per year since 1999.Although generally underestimated, solar water heating and cooling is by far the most widely deployed solar technology with an estimated capacity of 154 GW as of 2007." (more on wikipedia).

I believe that the news of being able to watch TV on a wristwatch was a real technological breakthrough back in the 1960s but today we can ask ourselves why didn't they think of devices like mobile phones or Tablets earlier. It seems ridiculous to watch a match or your favorite sitcom on your wristwatch.

I guess everybody wanted to have a multi-screen TV set back in the 70s. Imagine watching you favorite shown and having to switch to the other channel to see if the news has started yet. Or a husband watching his show and his wife coming into the room telling him to switch and see if her favorite has started yet. How annoying!

Cockroach nightmare

It started about a week ago. Every morning a roach would patiently sit in the kitchen sink and wait for me to wake up and make coffee. One morning there would be two of them, then three, then one. There were mornings when none would show up, only to show itself later in the day. I knew that the day would come when I would turn the kitchen upside down to hunt those disgusting creatures down. And today was the day. I knew G wouldn't approve of my hunt but I already started the demolition without him, so when he came home, he could do nothing but help me. I found about a dozen of live roaches, and even more that I killed to prevent them from escaping. G was sitting in his chair and laughing telling me he saw a couple of them running along the bedroom wall, just right above my head. I told him he better be joking or I would turn the bedroom upside down too.

It seems like our place is infested by roaches. A mouse or a roach, which is the worst?

Food cravings

While arguing with G two months ago, I told him I hated his clothes and that I thought I was time he bought some new ones. I told him that wearing the same T-shirt for a week made him look pathetic, disorderly and unattractive. While cleaning his wardrobe today, I was amazed to see how much clothes he actually has (twice as much as I have). Of course I knew that, but the fact that he uses only five T-shirts and two pairs of jeans puzzles me. When we first met, I had the feeling that he had the sense for colors and trends, but that was just an illusion.

G told me he couldn't wear those clothes because they had that funny smell of lying in the same place for a very long time, so I just took them out and hung them on the clothesline to air. 17 black and navy T-shirt, my gosh. And that's not all.

I'm happy because I've cleared a large portion of the plot for my future garden. It went rather quickly. Now I'm thinking about bringing my dad's rotary tiller to till the plot because I kinda hate digging up the plot with my hoe. I want a nice, neat and even ground. I have all these ideas how it would look like so I'm anxious to get the clearing done.

Around noon it looked like this:

Around 5 PM it looked like this:

I can't wait for tomorrow to come. I'm going shopping, and I'm going to buy a bucket of ice cream, cookies, a barrel of Pepsi like beverage, bananas, Nutella and a truckload of sour cream crisps.

I wish...

• Four things I've done done:

1. went on with clearing the site for my future garden (hopefully it will be ready for my grandchildren's first day of school)
2. cleaned the counter and the kitchen sink, washed the dishes and made dinner
3. finished reading the book I borrowed from AC
4. attached a new handle to my hoe (just because I didn't feel like fetching my other hoe from the old farm) and weeded my vegetable plot. Strangely enough, G insisted on planting tomato on my plot after telling me that the idea of having a fenced plot and digging the entire site is ridiculous.

• Four things I would like to do now:

1. play scrabble
2. draw or paint something
3. watch an interesting show on TV
4. paint my toe nails

• Four things I would like to eat now:

1. ice cream
2. Caesar salad
3. pasta with mushrooms and parsley
4. pizza (just a bite)

Four places I would like to be right now:

1. at the site of my future garden
2. in some seaside resort, walking on the beach
3. my couch
4. in the pool (I've dipped my legs in, but the water was just too cold. I'll go for a swim tomorrow.)

Getting in shape day 1

I just came back from jogging, part of my getting in shape program. I decided to start doing exercise regularly a long time ago, but every time I thought of actually working out, something came up. This week it's stomach ache, gall bladder stone, or something of that sort. I even started eating more meals a day just to ease the pain.
G has been pestering me with remarks about my looks for four years, and during that time I've done absolutely nothing about it. After my father died, I got concerned about my health, and realized how low my BMI really was. I knew that it was only the matter of time before I ended up in hospital. I've been telling myself that I feel just fine, but I knew that wasn't true. Two meals a day, one of which includes a pretzel, three cups of coffee and limited movement is a recipe for premature death. Hopefully, my regular workout will make me eat more and will make both G and myself happy.
I hope to set myself a clear goal and give myself a certain period of time to reach my goal. One of my goals apart from making G happy is to be able to wear sexy tops and skirts and look good in them.

This week's find

The new day brought cool and fresh air, a little bit cooler than expected, even cold. No signs of rain yet, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it fell, because it has rained every weekend since May Day.

Today I bring you a couple of pics and links I've been exploring the last two days. Enjoy!

                                                                  A Collection a Day

As a young girl, Lisa Congdon was obsessed both with collecting and with arranging, organizing and displaying her collections.This obsession resulted in blog documenting a project that includes posting photos and drawing of her collection over the period of 365 days.

Who would have guessed that collection screws and nails from an abandoned building could be so fun?

The second link leads to Artificial Owl, a site dedicated to provide a selection of the most fascinating abandoned man-made creations. 

"Last train to nowhere" abandoned trains, near Nome, Alaska, USA

                             http://www.artificialowl.net/2009/07/what-happened-to-world-discoverer.html

Too hot

Here I am, sitting in front of the computer and reading blogs. Saturday is reserved for surfing and gardening, but since it's too hot outside, I'll stick to surfing at least for awhile. I should reorganize the pantry, because that's something I wanted to do for a very long time, and just the sight of my messy pantry creeps me out. This morning I found two gigantic cockroaches in the kitchen sink and I got the urge to purge. Not to mention all the creepy-crawlies on the bedroom carpet. It's definitely time for a major cleanup. There's just too much stuff and too little space. There's also the problem of going and staying in G's house because he said some things that made me realize we're never going to get married (we're not meant for each other). Should I put my clothes into the wardrobe or should I leave them in my suitcase? I'll have to get back to town on Monday anyway.
Well, I wouldn't mind a quick summer splash of rain. Just enough to loosen the soil and make the weeding easier. Both metaphorically and literally.

Wednesday musing

I OFTEN DAYDREAM ABOUT... remodeling the old country house and sitting by the window and looking at my garden and taking in the smell of all kinds of herbs and flowers, admiring myself for my persistence and creativity.  One of the main reasons for remodeling the old shack is to have a place for all the junk my parents collected in the last 30yrs or so. I feel like my garage/entryway is too small for their collection, and of course, I want to protect those timeless pieces from being eaten by bugs, dust and rain.

I FEEL MOST CREATIVE WHEN... I have to take part in various fairs by selling stuff I make with the kids from my class. Just kidding...
I feel creative when I see the newest issue of the fashion magazine called Burda, or when I read a post on DIY on some of my favorite blogs. Unfortunately, those periods my creative outburst last only for a little while because I'm either too lazy to express myself or because I'm not really interested in a certain project.

I'M INSPIRED BY... my boyfriend's aunt. She wakes up very early each morning to feed her chickens, water the plant, drink coffee, then she returns to bed for a nap, after which she starts cooking, serving her husband, weeding the garden, entertaining the guests... I admire her for her energy, persistence and creativity (mosaics on her kitchen wall, clothes for her children and friends). She enjoys working in her garden, cooking and taking photos. Here are some of her photos of her estate.

                                                         

Farmers' protest

When you live in a nice country like Serbia you get to see plenty of protests, from those for and against the release of generals, to protests against the declaration of independence of autonomous regions, school workers' protest, down to the protests of farmers.
I'm pretty much indifferent to such ways of showing public opinion, but the latest protest made me voice my opinion on the matter.

The angry farmers, dissatisfied with the changes in government subsidies for the agricultural sector blocked the major regional roads in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina (where I happen to live). All roads connecting villages and town were (and are still) blocked, making the passage impossible. The barricades are removed every one to two hours for the period of 15mins to let the vehicles pass. The farmers won't let anybody pass, not even the buses, nor the delivery trucks.

 http://www.novosti.rs/vesti/naslovna/aktuelno.239.html:332741-Poljoprivrednici-Vratite-nam-stare-mere

The reason for my angst yesterday was the fact that I had lessons in the school in a village some 10km from the place I live, and I was very much concerned with the time of my arrival and departure. I had to catch the bus one hour earlier in order to get there on time. I wasn't sure if that would help me because I didn't know how much we would have to wait at the barricades. Fortunately, there were no barricades when we approached the village. Nonetheless, my co-workers were concerned about the return because the news of new blockades kept coming in. During my first lesson, I was informed that a car sent by the principal should arrive any minute to take us back to the town. I had one more lesson, so I thought about whether to stay or go, but then I was told that that might be my only chance to get back to the town. I didn't even get to finish the lesson properly when I was rushed out of the building. The ride to the town was a real adventure. We got to the piece of road which was half-way finished (some sort of a future bypass) from which we got to the dirt road through fields of corn and wheat. It seemed like an eternity to reach the town. A stream of cars was passing down the wavy dirt road, the sight of which reminded me of the scenes from western movies.
When I finally got home, I felt relieved that I got back on time for the rehearsal for the public lesson organized by the 1st graders for future 1st graders. The purpose of the lesson was to show a little bit of every subject taught in this grade, from obligatory subjects down to the voluntary ones, and to get more parents enroll their children in our school. I was extremely nervous because of some children not having learned their lines properly and because of the possibility that my CD would let me down in the last minute, but everything went just fine. I didn't get to see the reactions of parents and children because I was too nervous thinking about the entire act. Once the lesson was over, we felt relieved. Two weeks of intense preparations were finally over and we could carry on with our usual lessons.

For more info on the protest go to  http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=06&dd=02&nav_id=74702 and http://www.emg.rs/en/news/serbia/156700.html.

Farm house ideas

Three weeks ago I was reluctant to make plans that included my boyfriend because I had a huge row with him and I believed I wouldn't see him ever again. A dangerous combination of stubbornness and pride and you have yourself a recipe for disaster. However, after three restless days and nights, I grabbed the phone and called him first. I just couldn't wait for the divine intervention. At some point I even believed that God left me the right to choose. Having realized that, I had to make a move. No sooner had I finished the conversation with him, than I started wondering whether I made the right choice. 

Now I know that my choice was right because I got the chance to finish the projects I started a couple of years ago. The project includes renovating his farm house, growing a vegetable garden (although I suck at planting, watering, taking care of my garden),  renovating the old farm house that's deserted and doing some landscaping and of course, turning those houses in comfy homes. 

Therefore, my summer plans will include plenty of home improvement and some little time for relaxation. Plus, I have to type out 72 lessons plans for four different grades, so this summer is going to be everything but boring.

Here are some interior decorating ideas for the old farm house:

Design Sponge

Lisa Zador

Design Sponge

I wouldn't mind having a nice vintage cabinet like this (or at least vintage like): 

My Owl Barn

I have a bunch of vintage stuff in my garage, from kitchen utensils and dishes, to furniture, rugs, clothes, books, so I can hardly wait to renovate the old house to move the stuff into the house. 

Change

This week is going to be a very strange one, and it'll probably mark the turning point in my life, in a certain way. When 2 becomes just 1 after four years of living, breathing, planning, sleeping together, the least you can say is that it's going to be very strange to be single again. However, after months of living apart and hanging out with other people, we grew apart and lost interest in any form of intimacy. Our flaws and imperfections suddenly became so conspicuous that we seem to have completely forgotten about all the good times that we shared.

It seems ridiculous how much a simple sentence like "I'm just a human being and I make mistakes too" means too me, but that's the only sentence I want to hear from my boyfriend right now. He claims to be 100%  or at least 85 % perfect (where those 15% are inconsiderable) and he thinks he doesn't have to change a thing about himself. On the other hand, he thinks I'm close to complete and utter failure in the way I look, walk, dress and socialize with other people. I'm just sick and tired of being blamed all the time, so I took some time out from this relationship. I wonder who's gonna be the first to call and apologize?

This is the song I've been singing all day.

Domino Mag Inspiration

Thank goodness that the librarian did some inventorying today over at the American Corner, otherwise I would probably have never found out about Domino magazine. Unfortunately, the magazine ceased to be published back in March 2009, so the library won't be getting any other copies of the magazine. Why all good things must come to an end?

Anyway, flipping through the pages of the double issue for June 2008 I got an inspiration. These are the images that really inspired me (the images are not from the magazine itself though, but are very similar to those appearing in the mag).

                                                       I'm a huge fan of sandwiches.

I just love bolsters. You can use them to enrich your living space or use them as pillows while watching your favorite TV show.

I would really love to have a garden dining set like this. The only thing I hate about this set are the legs which tend to sink into the ground if you place your set on the lawn.

A better option would be something like this but then again, it's a bit bulky.

Add a nice ottoman to your garden set, sit back and enjoy a piece of no bake strawberry cake. 

Mommy's Kitchen

And when the sun disappears below the horizon, turn on the lights and put on some mosquito repellent.

Hampton Bay Outdoor Diamond Lantern 

May Day

We had really bad weather yesterday. It was raining all day long and the temperature really dropped. It was freakin' cold but that didn't stop us from barbecuing. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I didn't go to Croatia. My friend called me last Tuesday to see if I'm ready to leave and to inform me that there's a possibility he won't be able to make it because he's very busy. I was still recovering from the bad cold I caught two weeks ago while visiting the sport airfield with my pupils and I wasn't in a mood to go anywhere, so when he told me the "bad" news I acted all sad and really disappointed.
To tell you the truth, I wasn't up for anything special on May Day. As I'm getting older I'm really starting to hate all kinds of holidays and celebrations. So much stress and fuss about the preparations... My favorite holiday activity is not eating and relaxing but it's actually work. Especially on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve when I'm cleaning windows, vacuuming or baking something.
That's why I was a bit disappointed about not staying home on May Day. My only comfort was the fact that it   started raining the night before and there was no sign of stopping which meant that I wouldn't be able to do any gardening or outdoor activity.

Despite the rain our host managed to set up a barbecue under an improvised roof made of an old door leaned against the window sill and a piece of foil attached to the door. It was like watching Sponge Bob barbecuing under the sea. The water was dripping from the improvised roof,  the grease was splashing all around and the smoke was slowly entering the house though the open door.
After a nice meal, we talked a bit, watched "Me, Myself and Irene" during which we started dozing off, got up, ate again, watched some videos on YouTube and finally went home.

At the Larsson's

I have this strange habit of collecting blog addresses for later reading. I start reading them from the very first post to the newest, freshest, and then cross the addresses out, but I don't erase them. 

One of these addresses is Chez Larsson, a blog run by a woman who enjoys organizing drawers, cleaning cabinets, building furniture, and she even has a regular job. It's really refreshing to read a blog that is not run by a designer, an illustrator, or a collector of odd decorative objects. Who could have know that organizing your stuff according to their color and shape could be such fun?

I'll tell you a little secret. I love boxes and organizing stuff, rearranging them differently every now and then. I'm not an artist, a singer, I lack creativity, I'm a lousy cook and a lousy tailor, I'm pretty bad at keeping a garden, but I love making spaces nice and tidy. Boxes are my life, as well as suitcases are. I traveled a lot in the last 10 years so I'm pretty much used to living out of a suitcase, or a box, if you like.

I inherited this love for organization from my late father. Since his military days he was used to putting stuff in their place so he could find them easily at any given moment. He sure didn't have any trouble finding his documents, keys, notebooks with lottery numbers, glasses, even tools, or anything he himself would place in a certain drawer or cupboard. He would say that that keeping a place neat and tidy makes life easier and less stressful.

As much as I'm trying to be tidy, I just love making mess every now and then. I find mess challenging. Where's the fun in keeping you place tidy and finding your stuff easily? That's so boring. When you make a mess, you give yourself an extra task and keep yourself busy. 

Happy Easter!

Thursday supposed to be the last day of work before the spring break. I was about to leave for work when I received a phone call from my workplace telling me that I didn't have to come to work since the kids won't have English classes. So, my spring break unofficially began on Wednesday afternoon when I left the school building. Yay!

Today's day was reserved for egg painting. The event was organized by and held at my boyfriend's aunt's place. There was cooked corn, ham and boiled eggs on the menu. Even the local TV crew came to shoot a 30 mins documentary about the traditional way of celebrating Good Friday. I had other business to attend to so I missed the shooting, but I got there on time for the painting. I don't like TV cameras anyway.
I spent the rest of the day in bed because I came down with the flu. I hope I'll get well for my trip to Croatia on Tuesday but I somehow doubt it.

kids painting eggs

just a couple of the 67 visitors

Where are those boiled eggs?

uncle Steve takes the kids for a ride

22

I like reading other people's blogs because they give me inspiration, they teach me a lot of useful stuff and because sometimes they give me insight into the personal life of those bloggers.
What I'm less optimistic about is posting new stuff every day. I cannot imagine how anyone can have so much time to carefully and patiently collect pics to post them. I admire people who manage to keep their blogs constantly updated, despite their daily chores, kids, family and jobs.

I like looking at those pictures of neatly stacked and piled objects on display. I wonder where do the fellow bloggers get the patience for that. Another thing that puzzles me is whether they really have so many flower printed cups and do they really eat from the china they take pics of (once they set the table for different meals). Looking at those pots and glasses and different dishes the designers offer us and claim to be the "must haves" I can't help but wonder, do we really need them to be happy? Or any of those seemingly useless objects?

Madelief

A little digression that I have to make. The spring break starts in less than two weeks. I'm very happy. I'll be at my boyfriend's place doing some gardening and landscaping, and hopefully I won't be thinking about my job. I won't have to hurry back home on Sunday to commute to work on Monday. Plus, 4 extra days with a friend of mine in some seaside resort in Croatia... Well, I'm starting to hate those places but I'm looking forward to seeing my friend. I hope he'll bring me a nice present for Easter.
Sadly, I won't be with my boyfriend and our friends on May Day.